In in Q&A with President Obama, he was questioned about all of his ideas and plans he had for the nation from representatives of many Republican states in the nation. The first person was Mike Pence from Indiana and he started off with ethos trying to get the audience to feel sad by quoting an African American man comparing the time from when he grew up to present day and how that will effect his son. Representative Pence specifically makes a point about the son, a young boy who has high aspirations to further grab the audience's attention through emotions. Once he has the audience's attention he then goes straight into logos, bringing out the facts and numbers that do support how there has not been enough progress under the Obama administration. This man was very considerate of the President and was asking kindly of him just to consider another approach to helping the struggling families as opposed to directing the President. As a result, the President stated that he would embrace the ideas of the Republican Party. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin uses ethos when he introduced his family and a "ranking member of the budget committee" to give credibility to his statements and questions. When he questioned Obama, he questioned why does he not take action now and freeze now when he is just pushing it back a year. It seemed that Ryan was frustrated at the President because it seems so simple to do, but the president will not which gives him the a passive aggressive in his voice. The President also becomes slightly more stern, saying that his district specifically is actually spending well but many others are not and the President prefers to look at the bigger picture but agrees to talk budgeting later.The next representative from West Virginia had a tone of desperation which channeled pathos. When she was explaining how some of the policies that the President initiated may cause a lot of grief amongst the miners she specifically asked for confirmation that he knows what he is doing and that the miners know they are safe and the President is willing to help their pleas. Obama replied with looking towards the long-term.As the Q&A continues, the questions become increasingly aggressive and demanding of the President and his policies, why they aren't working and how he will fix the country in general. This Q&A did clear up a lot of questions that Republicans were wondering but it did not solve all problems for them specifically but a general point that the President is trying to make is that he is looking at the well-being of the general population of the nation and towards the future and not dwell in the past.

Hyperbole and a Half is essentially a comedic blog about personal experiences by a woman named Allie Brosh. Most of her posts are about her life stories whether it was during her childhood or something that happened to her recently and she writes about it from her perspective. She writes in a very dramatic or hyperbolic fashion to make her stories interesting and captivating but what defines her blogs is her illustrations that accompany these stories. She will always visualize her stories by creating drawings and pictures that go along with the story as if it were like a children's picture book. All of her pictures are made to seem like they were very unprofessionally drawn on Microsoft Paint to add a more comedic effect. For example, she writes, "The other children screamed and fled. The teacher chased me, yelling at me to stop. But I couldn't stop. I was a mindless juggernaut, a puppet for forces far greater than myself. I had completely lost control of my body." then it was accompanied by a picture of her attacking other children while wearing a dinosaur costume. She writes in a somewhat sophisticated manner and then contrasts it with a very childishly drawn visual aid. Hyperbole and a Half is just a hyperbole (and a half) of Allie Brosh's life.Hyperbole and a Half is generally directed toward audiences that are in their late-teens to people in their early 30's. Most people who read her blog are young and just want to something light and entertaining to read on the internet. Because she was only in her mid-20's when writing most of posts, much of her audience are about the same age because it is mostly this group of people that find the most enjoyment and connect with these posts the most. She writes about problems and situations that many people of this demographic can relate to and enjoy from her perspective which is why she has such a huge fan base.Many people who comment on her posts always write about how they completely agree with her or relate to her situation. One of her most popular posts was called "Adventures in Depression" when she discussed and illustrated her point of view when she was battling depression for a period of time. This was a monumental post because it help many people realize that they too were feeling the same way and they connected with Brosh as written in the comments section. Many other comments on her posts were about support and compliments about how entertaining and inspiring she is.Hyperbole and a Half is a large and non chronological biography of the events of Allie Brosh, an ordinary girl with ordinary stories. Because she is ordinary she brings her stories to extremities to entertain and give people something to laugh about. Many people enjoy reading a story about this girl ruining a birthday party or having a mentally retarded dog along with amateur illustrations done on MS Paint that just only enhance the experience. All of her audiences are entertained and related to Brosh. Many of her blog posts are just children's book but they convey situations that many of her readers have gone through or have had similar differences which is what keeps her audience wanting more.

1. Literacy is the how you use and interpret secondary language. Secondary language is language we use when we talk to non-intimates or people we are not well acquainted with. He uses discourse to generalize the term literacy, discourse meaning a certain way of acting and feeling that identifies to certain group of people. There are two types of literacy, dominant and powerful. Dominant literacy is control of the that secondary use of language or of dominant discourse while powerful literacy is control as a secondary use of language that can critique other secondary discourses including but not only pertaining to dominant discourses. Most of the time literacy is mastered through acquisition, which is learning by experience or watching a model.

2. This did change my understanding of literacy in a way of how I interpret how much meaning and depth the word has. Before, literacy to me was just a word to describe the ability to read and write but now after reading Gee’s explanation, I see there is a much deeper meaning to literacy. Now, literacy to me is how I use language that I would use with non-acquaintances to appeal to them. How I appeal to a certain group of people using their language or even my own language.

Ong explains how literacy is part of the human culture by assimilating so well that no one ever realizes that it exists. There are two distinct types of oralities that Ong classifies that helps create literacy. He distinguishes two types of orality, a primary and secondary orality. Primary orality is people who have only learned to communicate orally and do not know how to write as opposed to secondary orality which people who know how to read and write that utilize technology such as television or radio to communicate as well. Ong argues that without writing we would never be as literate as we could be, we could never evolve as much with out the technology of writing as a result of literacy. Ong states, "we do not commonly feel the influence of writing on our thoughts...without tremendous effort we cannot separate it from ourselves or even recognize its presence and influence" (4). Ong explains how literacy was not really part of writing until a relatively recent time period of human existence. The earliest records of writing were only a couple thousand years ago and before it was assumed that people only communicated orally. Because when said orally, it is "evanescent" there are ways the mind find ways to remember some of the things said orally through "formulaic structures" or structures that compliment the evanescence. Ong said the invention writing was bound to happen at some point but defining literacy as being able to write is not entirely true.

My grandma would always tell me, "Back when I lived in China I would always respect my parents, get good grades and work really hard." This is just one example of how my family would try to stuff down the Chinese lifestyle as much as they can to an American. Although I was born in America and I am nationally an American, my parents would constantly remind that ethnically I am Chinese, you could call it the struggles of an Asian American. My parents came here essentially looking for the "American Dream" and I'd say they have found it. Living in the higher-class suburbs of California, with decent jobs and 2 children that are currently going to universities. Of course, they cannot forget their lives in Taiwan and their Chinese heritage and they want to keep the legacy alive through their own children.I was taught how to proficiently speak and understand Mandarin from living in a family that generally speaks Chinese to communicate. Although I know how to speak Mandarin, there are many times when my family reprimands me on not speaking it with good enough pronunciation or integrating it with english which I coined the term "Chinglish" which is switching from Mandarin to English in mid-sentence or vice versa. One day, we went to eat at a Chinese restaurant like we always do. But suddenly, when the waitress came to take our order, my parents asked me to order for the whole family. Any time before this event, my mother would always order for the family and as a ditzy child, would never listen to what she orders so I never learned the name of any of these dishes we would order. I just sat there completely mute not knowing what to do with my whole family staring at me waiting to speak. I knew this was my parents trying to teach me a lesson on how little Mandarin that I know. After a good minute of silences my mom spoke up again and ordered for me. This is part of the shame that my parents made me feel because I did not know enough Chinese to help me.My grandparents are now at least 90 years old and has lived through many events to tell about. Constantly they would pester me about my mannerisms and how they see me living my life. There was many times I stayed at my grandma's house for a day and she would look after me for a day. Although, most of the time it would be fun, there are a few times she would lecture me. One time when she was looking after me, we took the bus to the neighboring city to eat at a restaurant there. As we were on the bus and approaching the stop, I pulled the line on the bus that indicated that I needed to get off on the oncoming stop but the bus driver did not notice and drove past the bus stop. My grandma became furious at how "someone can be so incompetent" and she started yelling at the bus driver for missing the stop. The bus driver stopped and pulled over immediately and let my grandma and I get off so we wouldn't have to walk from the farther stop but my grandma was still furious. This is part of the Chinese nature to be very aggressive and constantly reprimand because that is her way of trying to make things better. I tried very hard to stop my grandma but she continued to yell and finally I just pulled my grandma out of the bus resulting in her falling out of the bus and onto her back, luckily she was not injured but was furious at me as well. She told me how disrespectful I was to the elderly, how I should not have stopped her and how much I did not understand what she was trying to do. This constantly happens to me whenever I eat with my family because of the amount of times I did not "respect" my elders although this is a universal idea, this is strictly enforced within the chinese culture.I see many chinese decorations around the house like Chinese Bamboo Flutes, the Taiwanese Flag, chinese calligraphy and paintings as decoration. I hear a lot chinese music and radio as we drive because that is what my parents like to listen to. I speak in Mandarin to all of my family with the exception of my sister.

"I said the mountains look like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?""And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?"And once they take it away, you never get it back""Can't we maybe stop talking?""the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her at the table""I said we can have everything""We can have everything""I feel fine" she said, "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine."

Hemingway writes this as if it was an excerpt from a bigger story having mostly dialogue and minimal background information. The lack of background information makes me wonder what they could be talking about. I was intrigued by the constant back and forth and was able to make me feel like I know what the emotions characters are feeling at that moment even if we do not know any information about them. The sense of anonymity between this characters lets me just wonder what they could be discussing. The girl constantly brings up the hills like white elephants at first, the phrase white elephant means a possession that cost a lot to maintain and care with little profit, which makes me wonder more if it has any significance in the conflict the man and the American girl are dealing with.

1. The article is titled the Development of Health and it discusses the main struggles of Chinese immigrants integrating into western culture and how children that are 1st generation Chinese-American. The article talks about how asian-american households are very strict and Chinese parents focus on trying to enforce good education and obedience upon their children. Sometimes the ways of punishing their children can be very harsh and tend to be very derogatory towards the child.

2. Although, my family is exhibits some values of the Chinese-American lifestyle like expressed in the article, it is not as extreme as it is in the text. This article basically gives a stereotypical idea of what a Asian-American family is like. This stereotype would help make it more clear in my literacy story about how my grandma, the main character, is trying to help me stray away from that life through her words and wisdom.